Kicking the Habit

Despite the bloody incident, Elaina has never been deterred to stop her thumb-sucking business. Our hope that she will kick this bad habit once her teeth pushes through didn’t happen either... the moment of ecstasy is more important than any discomfort or pain she will feel from the indulgence.

As her parent, I cannot deny that I haven’t been doing enough in the past to break that bad habit totally, except to remind her that she is going to have an ugly finger or that the finger is going to drop off one day. Whilst we have been able to make Elaina stop sticking her thumb into her mouth during the daytime, it was almost impossible to keep pulling her thumb out in the middle of her sleep. She does it subconsciously in her sleep and it is hard to tell her off for that. And of course, the sucking motion has always been what lulls her to sleep. For that we have to take the entire fault for not stopping her. It was just an easy way out for everyone during bedtime.

I finally harden myself and bought an applicator for putting on Elaina's thumb nail and when sucked on will leave behind a bitter taste in the mouth. We prep her last night by telling her that the applicator will make her thumb and thumb-nail prettier (we are not lying because those years of sucking has left behind a big scarp on her left thumb) but will taste yucky if she puts the thumb her mouth.

Not surprisingly, she instinctively put her thumb in while trying to fall asleep. It was equally not surprising that she ended up crying. But the surprising part is the reason why she cried. It was not because of the after-taste but she is upset that her nail is no longer pretty now that she has licked off the application and even asked for another coating to be applied to her nail.